Information literacy skill of teachers in two cities.

What is it about?

Information Literacy (IL) is fundamental for lifelong learning, especially for the teaching profession, where information is critical for imparting knowledge to students who are expected to be creative, critical thinkers and lifelong learners. The study investigates the search strategy, self-concept and metacognitive skills of secondary school teachers in selected cities in Nigeria and South Africa. The study adopted a post-positivist research paradigm combining both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies largely through a multi- case study research design. Data were gathered through questionnaires, interviews, observation and document analysis that included a literature review. The target population was secondary school teachers in Lagos and Durban. The sample for the research was drawn from teachers in government secondary schools in Lagos and Durban. A multi-stage sampling technique was used in the first stage to purposively select samples from the two cities of Lagos and Durban in order to make comparisons. The second stage involved stratified random sampling, and the third stage applied simple random sampling. Literature analysis and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) were used to inform the study. The study revealed the following: (i) teachers in Durban had a higher level of perception of the need for information literacy than their counterparts in Lagos; (ii) electronic information resources were infrequently used by the teachers; (iii) younger teachers tended to possess a higher level of information literacy than their older colleagues, which proves why in-service training is imperative; (iv) female teachers were significantly more information literate than their male counterparts; (v) many of the school libraries seem to have been afterthoughts, and the specifications for library building and planning were not observed as itemized by IFLA library building guidelines; and (vi) interaction and collaboration between teachers and librarians was limited. Recommendations have been made regarding how the issues and challenges could be addressed and solved with IL policy and work shopping of teachers for IL.

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Why is it important?

Academic and professional literature has reported the countless benefits of IL in American, European and Asian countries for improving the performance of teachers, and indeed all professionals. However, regardless of the well-known benefits of information literacy, few researchers have reported on its importance to the teaching profession in developing countries. Therefore, this study wishes to unfold the status of IL in teaching practice in Lagos and Durban. Several years of military rule in Nigeria had an adverse effect, especially on teachers and the educational sector in general. The military era ended in the country with unfulfilled promises, constant changes in policy, fraud, injustice, religious and racial intolerance, poverty and general misery which led to severe economic consequences. The government was unable to pay teachers’ salaries, and the teachers embarked on a sequence of industrial unrest which led to changes in the academic calendar (Online Nigeria 2015). South Africa has been described as a country with attributes of both First- and Third-World countries, which affect access to information resources along this social divide. A privileged minority have schools, enjoying all the benefits of quality equipment, including libraries. In contrast, the majority of the population in rural areas and townships confront a problem in accessing ICT equipment because of relatively low-level infrastructure. Therefore, the problem of a digital divide within the society becomes deeper and minimizes access to global knowledge in the less privileged community. Noteworthy disparities between schools in previously advantaged and historically disadvantaged locations still exist today. The primary role of teachers is capacity building and human capital development, and this responsibility is of paramount importance for any country that is eager for educational development. However, the capacity of teachers in Lagos and Durban to meet this responsibility can be hampered by a lack of information literacy. This gap has serious implications for students/learners who are deprived of the opportunity to acquire basic library skills and IL techniques that could aid their ability to survive in the rapidly changing information environment. Another limitation for teachers in Nigeria and South Africa is the lack of authentic access points and terminals for accessing information. As a result of this, the solution for most teachers when seeking information is to use open-access search engines. The resources in these search engines are overwhelming, but most teachers lack the requisite skills to ascertain the authenticity, validity and reliability of the resources available online. Many of the open-access electronic resources are platforms where a lot of people can upload their content without going through a peer review mechanism to evaluate the content before making it public.